Arabic is not a font swap
The most common failure in this region's motion design is an English layout with Arabic dropped into it. It reads as an afterthought because it is one. Arabic script connects, so letters cannot be animated in individually the way Latin letters can. The eye enters from the right, so the composition's entry point moves. Calligraphic forms carry cultural and emotional weight that a geometric sans does not, so choosing a ‘clean modern Arabic’ is a real decision, not a neutral one.
A large share of my broadcast output at Almashhad is Arabic-language, which means these are daily problems rather than occasional ones.
What changes when the work is Arabic
Reveal logic
A Latin word can be revealed letter by letter. Arabic is a continuous stroke — so reveals follow the writing gesture, or the whole lockup arrives as a form. Getting this wrong is the fastest way to make an Arabic title look machine-made.
Weight and counter-space
Arabic has different density and different negative space than Latin at the same optical size. A bilingual lockup that balances on paper often does not balance in motion, because the two scripts settle at different visual weights once they move.
Diacritics and vertical space
Tashkeel and dots occupy vertical room that safe-area planning has to account for from the start, especially for lower thirds where the box height is fixed by the package.
Bilingual lockups
I design the Arabic and English versions as two solutions to one idea rather than one design translated. They share the concept, the colour and the timing structure — not necessarily the composition.
Arabic work I've designed
- Bil Tawfiq — an elegant calligraphy ident: gold lettering, glass rings, floating particles. Restrained and premium, designed and composited entirely in After Effects with artwork from Photoshop and Illustrator.
- Menna Wa Fena, Season 2 — luxury gold Arabic calligraphy on black marble, produced entirely with generative AI, with the type deliberately controlled because models still mangle Arabic script.
- Cinematic Title Sequence — Arabic metallic typography through smoke and embers; Blender 3D with AI-generated atmosphere.
- Andi Soual (عندي سؤال) — full Arabic-language show identity; Apple Podcasts Best of 2025 and Shams Award for Best Arabic Podcast 2025.
- Al-Mashhad Al-Masri — Arabic editorial graphics package built on glass quotation forms.
Why it matters commercially
Channels, agencies and brands across the UAE and the Gulf need work that is correct in Arabic and competitive in English. The pool of motion designers who can genuinely do both — rather than outsourcing one half — is smaller than the number of studios advertising it. That gap is a large part of what I do.
Let’s make something move.
Open to full-time roles and select freelance projects — Dubai, the Gulf and remote. Showreel, breakdowns and CV available on request.
Email me CV & availability Watch the showreel